NOW’s most-read Art stories of 2011.
1. Street art battle Does City Hall understand the difference between vandalism and legitimate street art? Rob Ford’s war on graffiti was at first just a minor feature of his campaign but has now become a full on initiative to “clean up” the city. He’s up against some heavy opposition. Here’s what one artist had to say.
2. Big hairy deal Winnie Truong explores human hair in the form of drawings. For Truong, this style of visual art, using hair as its main identifer, helps portray us as individuals. According to her, your hair sets you apart.
3. Distant Secrets Using professional architectural software, Alex McLeod puts together these model landscapes that she then prints as a 2D images. These illustrations exude an aura of fantasy and exploring his miniature worlds in this piece was a blast.
4. Over The Moon Pretty Strange was an apt title for Julie Moon’s show of abstract porcelain sculptures that were both beautiful and bizarre, and stubbornly refused to define themselves. A fun and savvy highlight of 2011.
5. Subway Sleepover Seems like every year the artists of Nuit Blanche get more and more outrageous with their projects. This year Jessica Rose upped the ante by hosting a sleepover in Lower Bay Station. Her vision was to bring people together and to make that in itself a work of art. This kind of participatory urban–centered project is what Nuit Blanche is all about.
6. Artist Profile: Julie Moon In our profile of Toronto ceramic artist Julie Moon (see above), she shares insights into how to stay focused in the studio and talks about the effect her recent three-month stay in Berlin had on her work.
7. Toronto Arts Foundation Awards finalists In case you missed it, here’s a rundown of the 15 finalists at TAF, a festival that celebrates individuals and organizations who have made great contributions to Toronto’s artistic life.
8. California dreamin’ Davida Nemeroff’s new photography exhibit, called California, embodies the risks and vulnerabilities between the camera and the subject, a long-running theme of her other work.
9. Interview with Daniel Faria He’s got a new studio in Bloor West and we got a sneak peak. Check out this brief interview with Faria, chatting about art today and the Toronto scene.
10. Road pic power Road Movie, by Elle Flanders and Tamira Sawatsky, screened as part of TIFF’s Future Projections program. It is a mixture of thrills and political conflict as the directing duo turn their cameras on the West Bank’s road system: “modern multi-lane highways for Israelis rutted, checkpoint-riddled tracks for Palestinians.”
